Ok, here goes, I’m documenting my journey of the making of my short film, The Rose of Edenton. It’s as much for me as it is for those of you who have requested it (thanks script writing students). As most of you know this film is close it my heart because it is about my grandmother, Rosa Howcutt who passed at the age of 101. I miss Grandma dearly…a commonly know fact about her... she loved to dance. Everyone in Edenton, North Carolina and the surrounding towns knew that Grandmas was a dancing somebody. I mean she was cutting a rug during the flapper era when they went hard! Being a flapper meant being controversial, it was the roaring 20’s and boy did those girls roar! Josephine Baker was overseas doing the provocative banana dance, Prohibition was in full swing, speakeasies were all the rage and women were shedding their meek and mild demeanor.
The legendary stories of my dancing grandma have been told at family dinners and gatherings for years and years. That said, the beginning of my film opens with Rosa heading off to college. This is significant because she is the daughter of 1st generation emancipated parents. Her great-grandfather, Miles Howcutt, won his family’s freedom from slavery by fighting in the Civil War. As an awesome consequence, Rosa’s parents were college educated and had the same in mind for her. As amazing as that was for the times Rosa had one problem, she really wanted to become a dancer like Josephine Baker, and was determined to do so…she just didn’t know how to exactly.
Now that you know the backstory, let’s switch to the movie character Rosa. Her conflict…she has always been completely obedient to her parents but, she just can’t seem to get them to understand how passionately she desires to become a dancer. So, while at college learning the skill of becoming an educator, Rosa is faced with the temptation to audition for the chorus line of the immensely popular Negro vaudeville show, Silas Green from New Orleans (an incredible true story in its own right)—torn between duty to her parents and a desire to dance, well she just can’t resist. And, as they say, the rest is history.
Now, we all have awesome family history much of which, no doubt, would make incredible stories if not movies—think about it…look at Alex Haley’s, Roots! So, I hope my ROE (Rose of Edenton) movie-making journey encourages you to make some movies of your own. I hope you like this and most of all hope it’s useful to you. One more thing, please drop me a line/comment/feedback, about this blog, I need all I can get and would sincerely love to hear from you!!!
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